A personal review/views/opinion. Anything under the sun can be d daily dose of my blog. I am not a writer hence my blogs are short and simple ramblings...

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Universal Studio & Orchard Rd

Last month's birthday present from me to hubby was a ticket to Universal Studio Singapore. Its sorta like a surprise-gift for him.

Uni Studio is located in Sentosa Island and Resort World manages the theme-park.

It was a short planned trip. I only planned to buy it a week before his birthday. Didn't wanna planned ahead because we don't want to be dissappointed. As it has happened to us before, we planned ahead a good trip but in end up we didn't get to go.

By the time we reached the place, i guess we're the first few, not many people yet as the place only opens at 10am. Ticket can be bought online (which is much easier) as you don't have to queue or just in-case its sold out.

As we entered the park, the friendly staff directed our ways to collect the dining and shopping vouchers. We were asked to exchange our ticket with a $5 off merchandise and $10 off food voucher that we can use while in the park (so we get $15worth of voucher back from the entrance ticket we paid, GREAT deal rite?!!

There are ‘divided’ into seven different ’sections’:The Lost World (Jurassic Park), Far Far Away (Shrek!), Madagascar (you should know this one!), Ancient Egypt (The Mummy), Sci-Fi City (Battlestar Galactica), Hollywood and New York. But only 2 sections were still undergoing renovation & have yet to be open. I know about it but still insists on going & checking it out, so i don't care whether its half open or not, hehehe... plus, i would like to go there again. Its fun!!

The architectures, buildings and designs were quite impressive-lah. I don’t feel like I’m in Singapore once I stepped into the park.

We started our day via taking a picture with my favourite animal in the world – the famous Kungfu panda, Po. Isn't he cute!!

Hubby's first impression was how small the place was. He used to go to Disney theme park in USA and its big!! We realized that the physical size of the park was compact. But somehow they managed to squeeze many rides and attractions in the smaller space, kind of like Singapore itself-lah, cramming everything into a small space, hehehe.
Hubby and I began our preview looking at the map and deciding which way to go, clockwise or anti-clockwise. In the end, we decided it did not matter because at that time, the crowd was not that big.

First stop were to Madagascar and picture taking with those cute animals....Gloria being my fave!!

Next we wandered into Far Far Away and checked out Shrek's Far Far Away Castle. Its where the 4D show are held. You get to watch a 3D movie with the 4D being the moving seats and special effects like water/air-speed being sprinkled at you...cool!! And i enjoyed the show.

After the show, we entered the Jurrasic Park. We took the "Canopy Flyer" rides, which is only a few seconds ride. Alto there was a slight delay due to technical issues, we were finally told to come back later in the day but i insists on queuing and finally we were able to ride on one.

We gave Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure a miss as i do not want to get wet, not before finishing the whole park. Hubby said no too, he doesn't like "The Dip", hehehe..

Next is the Mummy section. I could not get on this rides cos the queue were too long and both of us didn't wanna wait. The Ancient Egypt has a ride, the Revenge of the Mummy, an indoor roller coaster ride. We gave it a miss too as the queue were too long.

There are some attractions at the Sci-Fi City, eg, the Battlestar Galactica dual roller coasters. The coaster rides, was closed so there wasn’t much to see.
Finally its lunch-time and we had it at Mel's Diner at almost 2pm, which look like you were in the classic American 60’s. It was not expensive, with less than S$10 bought you a generous portion of cheeseburger with drinks and fries. They have a shiny looking juke-box and the retro interior decorations suits the theme very well! The servings are huge and very fulling. The place was pretty packed. We caught the appearance of a few retro dancers right outside the dining place. Its colourful costumes and how they tried to engage the audiences and get them to dance together as well were fun! There are 2 other outlet that has a 'Halal' sign, so food is not a problem for the muslims tourists. Our last stop was the Hollywood area. Its like walking through the streets of hollywood of fame.

We went to Lights, Camera, Action, hosted by Steven Spielberg...yeah, we never got to see Mr Spielberg in person but on the flat-screen! It actually showcases what happens to a boat house in New York City during a category 5 hurricane. The effect was nice and the sea look very realistic from the fake windows, real fire to the crashing boat.

With only an hour left, we went on a shopping spree. I love all the merchandise sold there! They have the best souvenirs such as toys/soft-toys, cushions, pins, mousepads, caps, notepads t-shirts, towels, mugs, fridge-magnets and lots of other stuff .

I'd like to share some tips. If you can, do avoid weekends or the school holidays. The queuing time will be much longer, which means you’ll have ‘less’ time going around and checking out other rides and shows. And go and buy your tickets online a few days in advance to avoid disappointment. Since you'll be spending the whole day here, its wise if you just stay in a 3 or 4 star hotel because by the time you reached the hotel, you just want to retire & sleep. There's no point staying in luxury hotels if you can't get to use their facilities or enjoy the place right.

How can you not visit Orchard Road when you're in Singapore? We made a day trip there just to go shopping & window shopping. Last i went Orchard Road was during our honeymoon trip. That's about 14 years ago!! Another trip was with my inlaws which is also around 10 years ago.

Of course there were many changes, but what you get in KL nowadays, you can get it in Singapore, eg, Forever 21, Top Shop, Zara (those days, KL don't have these shops) only in S'pore. Those days fashion came to KL a few months before Singapore's. Now there's practically same shop/boutique that you can get in KL, so its kinda boring for me.

I only get to shopped mostly on imported chocolates. Not much on clothes or handbags as you can get it in KL. But i get to go to many new shopping malls there. We took the opportunity to experience the monorail-ride (macam lah tak pernah naik) and then took a bus-ride.

Vivo City is a very modern mall.

There rest were mostly the same. The whole day were spent in Orhard Road it's worth it lah cos i get to do some shopping.

Its quite difficult to find 'halal' food in Orchard Road area...I guess most of the 'halal' restaurants are off-skirt, it only leaves to McD or our fave fast-food joint, LJS. So we had fish for lunch and continued shopping.